My earliest memories of the great outdoors were trips to the family ranch, LaBelle. It has been in the family since around 1888 when a new postmaster J. E. Broussard named the post office LaBelle in honor of his fiancee, Mary Bell Bordages.  That was my great grandfather and great grandmother. He was a rice farmer and cattle rancher, who was larger than life. As he started buying all the land he could around LaBelle, Texas, it grew over his lifetime to span from LaBelle to the intracoastal canal that runs between Winnie and Port Arthur, some 40,000 acres. Beauty is certainly in the eye of the beholder, and in my great grandfather’s eyes this marshy terrain of mosquitos, alligators, rice fields, and Texas wildlife was heaven on earth. As he liked to say, there’s no more land being made, so a man can never have too much of it. Now five generations later, some of the land is leased to cattle ranchers and some to farmers. Most importantly for those of us who inherited an undivided interest in the property, it is a place to marvel at the wildness of the marsh and its inhabitants.

The marsh may seem completely useless to many, as you can’t farm it, and cattle don’t do well in it, but so many in our family grew up hunting the ducks and geese during the winter. My brothers and sisters were excellent shots, but I found out early on that I wasn’t much of a shot. In later years I was finally diagnosed with one farsighted eye and one nearsighted eye, to say nothing of the astigmatism:) No matter, I married an eagle eye who was one quarter Cherokee and had two sons who learned at the foot of the master. I was the duck cleaner and cooker. In fact today I’m quite proud of my duck gumbo. There was other wildlife to be enjoyed at a distance. Gators were abundant and nutria rats even more so. More than a few snakes as well, but no one wanted to photograph them:) My cousin Betsy had the good sense to marry Roger Smith, who is the most passionate about preserving the ranch, and in fact provided all these pictures that he snapped while surveying his hunting paradise.

Grandfather Broussard had the foresight to envision that future generations would love this property as he did. Ducks would always be plentiful for those who braved the cold marsh waters and alligators. Also, the mechanical inclination to keep a marsh buggy running. To really get up close to the birds, it was best to have an airboat and a duck blind (so the birds don’t notice you until too late:)

Family legend has it that while Grandfather Broussard would hunt the ducks and geese to provide for the family table, his real passion was fishing. The brackish water of the marsh provided a perfect habitat for red fish, and sometimes the occasional flounder. This was my personal passion as well. The largest redfish I have caught in this lifetime was over 8 pounds, and simply rose up out of the marsh waters holding onto my little plastic lure, giving me the fight of my life. So many memories to ponder as a shut-in. My hope is that my grandchildren enjoy the family property as much as I did:)